Seized motor? Don't be so quick to junk it. In the Fall 2007 BoatWorks, editors Dave Baldwin and Mark Corke brought a dead outboard back to life. Their mission was simple: Take the engine apart, diagnose its problem, and get it running again—and hopefully have a little fun in the process. The entire project took two days and the biggest problem they encountered was finding enough space in the FULL STORY

Need to shed light on your engine without tapping your house batteries? Meet Black & Decker’s cordless Bright Bar and Mini Bright Bar. The units can provide focused light, area lighting, or 360-degree lighting, depending on the space that needs illuminating. They use long-life LED bulbs, which are reported to provide up to 10,000 hours of bulb life, and have an adjustable swivel-hanging hook for FULL STORY

The German builder Bavaria was sold for 1.3 billion euros in 2007, so it should not come as a surprise that the new owners are announcing new models. What surprises me a little is that the first new boat is a 34-footer rather than a big-ticket 60-footer. But then again, the new owners may realize that sticking with Bavaria’s proven high-volume production formula is probably a FULL STORY

If you race sailboats in the U.S., you have no doubt witnessed a parade of rating-rule acronyms in the past decade: IMS, Americap, PHRF. Now there’s a new contender in the alphabet-soup rating-rule game. IRC has been used widely in the U.K. and Europe for years, but it was introduced in the U.S. only a couple of years ago. So far the transition has been fairly smooth, with almost 600 IRC FULL STORY

I've lost track of how many times I've walked onto the deck of a raceboat full of strangers and walked off with a new set of friends. It tells me something about the game. Or about the people who play the game. Or something.

Of course it's easy to make friends when you share an interest, but there's more here than you get out of birding with